During the eight hour drive between Chicago and Kansas City, Katelyn learned a lot about Dylan Kim. He grew up in Oregon. He was raised by his father. His parents were, basically, teenagers when he was born. When he first said this, Katelyn assumed they were actually teenagers when he was born, but they weren't. They were, like, 21 and 22. They'd gotten married, but then split up shortly after he was born while his father was still going through dental school. Apparently, his mom had left to pursue some dream that neither he nor his dad seemed to harbor any ill-will against. Dylan had stayed in Portland for college, and had worked as an office assistant for a little while afterwards. He had moved to Chicago that past spring.

That seemed crazy to Katelyn. The only reason she'd wound up living in Chicago was because she'd been going to school in Chicago. She couldn't imagine moving to a city without the gentle transition to the area that college provides, particularly if that move would be alone and without some sort of established security system. Adding to the crazy, from Katelyn's perspective, was that Dylan was apparently super close with his dad. When she'd asked Dylan why he moved so far away, his first response was, "I love Portland, but I got this killer job making minimum wage at a diner two blocks away from a heatless basement apartment where the rent is slightly less than I make in a month and I was like, "Whoa, what a deal. How can I pass that up??" Then he had cracked a smile and explained how he'd moved to Chicago because he figured it'd be a great place to kick off a career in comedy, nevermind that many a comedy career was launched on the west coast.

After he'd been talking for a bit, he stopped himself and his cheeks colored. Katelyn imagined that he could have gone on talking about comedy forever.

"Anyway. That's what I want to do. Comedy. And all of my favorite comedians started out here. I think it's hard on my dad, but he's really supportive, too."

The whole conversation had been exhilarating. Everything Dylan said was imbued with enthusiasm and passion. It was like everything he talked about was something that he was excited about. Even when he was talking about his mom who was basically absent from his life. He explained that she worked as an editor in New York and had taken on more of a friend role than a parent role. He seemed genuinely proud of her though.

When Katelyn had been with Jason, he'd talk at length about investment banking and stock market crashes and weight training and something called the keto diet. But he never talked about any of those things like they were actually worth talking about. He didn't talk about them like he was excited about them. He didn't even talk about them like anyone should be excited about them.

Katelyn had enjoyed her conversation with Dylan so well that she didn't even mind that the car ride was so long. In fact, she was almost disappointed when they finally arrived at her parents' house.

Her mother and sister were standing on the stairwell gawking down at them as they made their way up the drive. Elizabeth was rounded, but that was the byproduct of childbirth. Unlike Katelyn, Elizabeth had once been slim. They both had red hair, but Elizabeth's was straighter. She wore it down around her shoulders, part of it braided into a faux headband. She was wearing a black tunic with leggings, a teal cardigan, and black flats. She was bouncing a bit, clearly cold. Their mother was an older version of Elizabeth. Her hair, once a vibrant red, was fading with age. She had it wrapped in a bun at the back of her head. She was wearing a green Christmas sweater. On it was a reindeer with antlers made out of handprints--a homemade gift from Connor when he was six.

Noticing the sweater, Katelyn turned, abruptly, back to Dylan. In a hushed voice, still out of earshot of her family, she said, "Shoot, Dylan. I forgot to tell you! Connor--my brother--called me last night. He's going to be here after all. And he had met Jason. It's okay, though, I explained the situation to Connor and he's cool so we don't really have to worry about him outing us or anything. I just wanted to give you a heads up. We're going to pick him up from the airport on Friday, though, so you'll get to meet him before you need to act like you've already met him in front of the family."

Dylan's eyebrows lifted in surprise, and then quickly were schooled into a neutral expression. He shrugged, squeezed her shoulder, and reassured her, "It'll all be fine."

Katelyn could have swooned. Dylan Kim. Champion of men.

"Thank you," she mouthed and, affectionately, knocked her body into his side. He laughed and, for a second, it was almost as though their relationship wasn't a fake one.

"Katy? Have you got everything all right?" Her mom called down to her. "We can lend a hand if you need."

"That's all right, Mom, we've got it!" She said. It hadn't been a real offer. Her mother just wanted them to hurry up so she could go back inside and meet Dylan. Or, well, Jason.

"You must be Jason," Martha cooed once they'd made it up the stairs. She took his hand and shook it.

"Yeah, nice to meet you, ma'am," Dylan said. Katelyn grinned. He was such a charmer. Her mother actually blushed.

Martha placed a hand on Dylan's back and guided him into the house, talking excitedly about their Christmas traditions and telling him how glad she was to finally meet him. To Katelyn's chagrin, she heard her mother say, "I thought Asians were supposed to be short," causing Dylant to bluster and reply, "I'm shorter than Ha Seung-jin."

Elizabeth was close behind. Katelyn was hoping that her older sister was rearing up to chastise their mother. She probably would wait until Dylan was out of earshot; that's what she always did for Malik. He would go into another room and then Elizabeth would face their mom, asking, "All right, what the hell was that?" Maybe, Katelyn worried, Elizabeth would expect her to stick up for Dylan, though. She hoped not. Martha Eubanks rarely listened to Elizabeth when she was calling Martha out for saying something problematic. Still, she was more likely to listen to Elizabeth than Katelyn; Martha Eubanks rarely listened to Katelyn at all.

"Katy!" her mom called back at her. "Come along, dear, I'm giving Jason the tour!"

Katelyn tried not to grumble. She wanted to say something like, "I grew up in this house, I don't exactly need a tour," but instead she just trailed behind as her mother showed her fake boyfriend the rooms of her childhood house, telling him real and embarrassing stories about her upbringing. They ended the tour at Katelyn's room.

"And," Martha said with a flourish, "this is Katy's room! I'll leave you two to get settled."

"Oh wait, Mom!" Katelyn objected, putting out a hand to stop her. "Shouldn't he...you know...stay in the guest room?"

"Absolutely not," Martha said dismissively, "what if we have guests?"

"We do have a guest," Katelyn argued. It was fruitless, though. Her parents liked to have the guest room free just in case. Katelyn didn't know that it had ever been used. After her mother left, Katelyn stalled for a minute and then huffed, "Fine, come on," at Dylan. He followed her inside her room. When she looked back at him, he was trying not to laugh.